Health information technology (health IT) makes it possible to efficiently manage patient care through secure use and sharing of electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs include electronic medical records (EMRs) and other critical data created and regularly consulted and updated by healthcare organizations and their staff. An electronic medical record (EMR) typically includes all of a patient's medical history from a healthcare provider. EMR records are used by healthcare providers, such as hospitals, clinics, medical specialists, and the like to identify patients, track patients' healthcare overtime, check or update on patients' health parameters, monitor and improve overall quality of care. Therefore it is generally necessary to refer to a patient's EMR every time a patient seeks care from a healthcare provider. To that end, healthcare organizations are seeking to implement an EMR infrastructure that is accessible from multiple points of care. The healthcare industry has developed dedicated EMR software applications and dedicated communication protocols which allow a convenient flow medical data.
Two important elements of the healthcare infrastructure for the flow medial data are PACS (picture archiving and communication system) and DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine). DICOM is the healthcare industry standard for formatting, transferring, storing and viewing EMRs. Based on the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model of the International Standards Organization (ISO), DICOM enables digital communication between diagnostic and therapeutic equipment and systems from various manufacturers. Specifically, DICOM enables the integration of scanners, servers, workstations, printers, and network hardware from multiple manufacturers into a healthcare facility's PACS.
A PACS system consists namely of: (i) an imaging modality; (ii) a secured network (typically TCP/IP network, e.g., Ethernet®) for transmission of patient image data and information related thereto; (iii) workstations for interpreting and reviewing the images, (iv) archiving databases for the storage and retrieval of images and reports; and (v) workstations for providing access to the databases and making the data available to final users. As used herein, the term “modality” will be given its customary meaning as understood by persons having ordinary skill in the art, and as defined by governmental standards. For example, in medical imaging, the term “modality” typically refers to any of various types of equipment or probes used to acquire images of the body, such as X-ray equipment, ultrasound equipment, optical coherence tomography (OCT) equipment, magnetic resonance devices (MRI scanner), computerized tomography (CT) scanners, positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, Nuclear Medicine systems, and the like. Imaging modalities generate large amounts of medical imaging information, such as images, videos, reports, waveforms and audio. Typically this information is spread throughout a healthcare enterprise and not centrally managed.
Traditional imaging modalities are dedicated systems having specialized hardware for processing the large amounts of data generated by imaging patients with specific imaging sensors or probes. These imaging modalities tend to be delicate and expensive devices that must undergo stringent governmental approval (clearance) before being used for patient care. For this reason, imaging modalities are difficult to upgrade or modify. Further, since imaging modalities have specialized components, which, to maintain governmental clearance, must not be modified, traditional imaging modalities are generally not integrated into, or do not interact freely with, the healthcare IT environment of a given healthcare facility.
However, in large healthcare facilities, such as a hospital where patient care is distributed across various departments often located on multiple floors, a technologist needs to repeatedly travel between different departments and/or floors. Therefore, a conventional use scenario of a traditional imaging modality in the above described infrastructure is not efficient. Specifically, according to conventional technology, for example, X-Ray technologists while imaging a patient with a mobile X-Ray system at an exam room (first location), have the need to access software applications on a separate workstation usually located in a radiology department (second location) remote from the exam room. The following is a typical conventional workflow: first, a technologist selects a patient to be examined from a RIS (Radiology Information System) desktop workstation typically located remote from a place where the patient is to be visited/examined. The technologist leaves the desktop workstation and travels to where the mobile X-Ray system (modality) and/or the place where the patient is located. The technologist now locates the information of the patient to be examined from a Work List that resides on the modality. In particular, when the modality is transportable (mobile modality), the technologist would move the modality to specific locations, such as an ER (emergency room department), imaging department, or even a private home where a patient is located. Therein, the technologist performs the X-Ray exam or any pertinent imaging. If possible, the technologist transfers the study images to PACS. At this point the technologist leaves the mobile X-Ray system and travels back to the RIS desktop workstation at the radiology department. At the Radiology department, the technologist opens the PACS client application (PACS software) and performs a Quality Check (QC) of the images transmitted from the modality. If QC is satisfactory, the technologist will switch to the patient management system in RIS to end the study. If the QC is not satisfactory, the technologist will likely repeat the foregoing process until the study QC is satisfactory. The above workflow represents a very inefficient scenario that drastically limits the technologist's productivity, and encumbers the patient's time and comfort when undergoing treatment.